Scandinavian carrier SAS hopes to emerge from US Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection next year.
The airline voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 in July 2022 to enable a financial restructuring.
The process includes a restructure the carrier’s debt obligations, a reconfigured fleet of aircraft and emerging with a “significant” capital injection.
Delivering results for the three months to July, present and chief executive Anko van der Werff said: “The procedures governing the equity solicitation process were approved by the US court on May 15 and we are now running a competitive and broad solicitation process to secure capital that will help drive our airline forward and facilitate our emergence from the Chapter 11 process.
“There has been substantial interest from potential investors to participate in the process, where potential investors can place bids to take a lead position or be paired with other investors in acquiring equity interests of the reorganised company.
“Simultaneously, we continue to engage with our different stakeholders and work toward building consensus for a reorganisation plan.
“We currently aim to complete court approval of our court-supervised process in the US around year-end, to be followed by any regulatory approvals and procedures required in 2024.”
SAS carried almost seven million passengers in the May-July period, the highest quarterly passenger figure since before the pandemic, with a return to profit for the first time since 2019.
The chief executive added: “This is an important milestone. We still have a lot of work ahead of us with our transformation to secure long-term competitiveness, but I consider this a clear sign that we are on the right track and that our efforts are paying off.
“We continue our ramp-up and will increase capacity this winter, compared to the same period last year. We also noted strong ticket sales throughout the third quarter, indicating a healthy underlying demand for travel despite a more uncertain economic outlook in society as a whole.
“During the quarter, air traffic control capacity issues caused considerable problems for airlines, airports and, not the least, our passengers.
“We know that many passengers traveling through Copenhagen airport during the summer have been impacted and our employees have been working hard to support those affected.”
The increase in passenger demand led to a 54% year-on-year increase in total operating revenue to SEK 13.1 billion for the quarter.
Pre-tax profits came in at SEK 457 million, representing an improvement of SEK 2.5 billion, compared to same period last year which was impacted by a 15-day strike by pilots at the airline.